Wednesday, June 18, 2008

A Gripe About Ebay - Sellers Get Screwed - My Rant

Please excuse my language, but it's really true. The p0wer is now in the hands of the buyer, not equally in the hands of both the buyer and the seller. I am both a buyer and a seller on Ebay and in all fairness, I don't see how Ebay is presenting a balance by prohibiting the seller to leave negative feedback for the buyer. Ebay's reasoning from what I can gather is that they don't want to lose any of their buyers. My reasoning? Without sellers, there are no buyers. Why pick on the sellers?

For example, I recently had a buyer whom I shipped a $15 product to. Ebay told me that they were investigating a complaint (mind you I had 100% positive feedback at the time and over 1500 positives). I provided Paypal with the tracking information and proof of delivery they requested. I have no idea what they told Ebay, but all I know is that it went into a dispute (automatically) through Paypal. I provided all of the documentation, ie. the fact that it was shipped the SAME day, proof through tracking that it was actually delivered, and proof of any of the correspondence sent to the customer. The end result? The customer won. I lost $40 due to fees, reversal charges, refunding not only the money for the product, but the money for the postage and I had to pay Paypal $10 for the privilege of my losing the case. In addition, I lost the $15 on the product. What could I do about it? Nothing. No recourse. No one to communicate with to find out why. It just happened. Paypal's decision was final and no explanation was given. They just took their $10 and went away.

So, if you have a buyer who decides randomly to cancel their order and who gives Ebay a good story, true or not, you will lose. You will not be able to complain. You will have to eat the costs through Paypal and you will start to get a bit miffed.

To top it off, I had another one last week. I work hard to build my Ebay business and as you can imagine, I almost blew a gasket! Another reversal, two in one month whereas before the changes, I hadn't had any, just 3 neutrals (two that were put in by mistake because the person thought neutral meant OK and I still cannot find the 3rd one although it is showing up in my feedback.

The one last week said it was under investigation and Paypal removed the $17.00 or so that had been paid to me while they investigated the chargeback. Surprisingly, the chargeback was made AFTER the buyer received their product AND left me POSITIVE feedback. . . oooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I wanted to scream! So, sorry, now I'm screaming!

Anyway, my point is, Ebay is the giant and I am just a number who is running a small business. My Ebay fees last month were a mere $380 on sales of just over $1700 . . .My little fee amount may not be that great but take the thousands of us who give Ebay $380 for fees and add that up and it may make a dent in what Ebay makes. If all of the little guys go away because we are put out of business by negative feedback or higher Ebay fees, then Ebay may have to rethink their decisions to make the sellers the fall guys.

3 comments:

redtap_news said...

Totally agree with you. No more system of checks and balances.

As sellers we are at the mercy of the buyer, and there is no way to fight it.

It is so undemocratic, I received 4 negative feedbacks for reasons that had very little to do with me as a seller, right after the new policy came into place. (ie.a mom not liking what her kid bought, items "not received", when no one told me so...)

And yes you are right, one time Paypal reversed a transaction of $50 right after my buyer gave me positive feedback, and signed off ebay for good!...He stole my product and money, and ebay did nothing to stop it.

I am thinking about bailing, ebay's new management and ideas suck!

kevin said...

recently sold a gumball machine for 50 bucks. ebay and paypal fees around 7 bucks. buyer wants cheapest shipping possible. I lose 4 bucks on shipping. 2 days later disputes for non receipt. not expecting this i had already taken the money out of paypal. paypal immediately goes after the linked bank account for the money. just so happened there is no money in there so i get a 30 dollar fee from my bank and now paypal and bank are in the neg. meanwhile i have already provided paypal with the tracking number and the package has arrived within 4 days of sale. scratch that, not sale, payment. the guy payed after 6 days and 20 questions signaling buyers remorse from the minute he won the thing. i know, i should have known. i finally kiss enough but and get the guy to drop the dispute 2 days after he has the item. since then ive received 4 emails over 1 1/2 weeks from the buyer asking for positive. im being held hostage. if you figure gas money and shipping supplies plus all of my fees i think i payed this guy to take my 1985 grandmother givin gumball machine.

I started selling 4/5/00. using wifes name since 07 when paypal account got frauded and paypal asked me for 2 years worth of bank statements. bottom line is after 10 years its not worth it anymore. ebay has created a haven for scamming buyers. its almost like they encourage and assist the buyers in screwing the sellers.

Anonymous said...

New to ebay - countless hours making them money - think i'm out before the shit hits the fan.
Have just spent days asking them why one product gets such a shit listing in results - wont go there....

FUCKING HALF WITS